You know BlogHer, right? It’s a huge community for what my Papa would probably describe as “lady bloggers,” with a web presence, an ad network for female-written blogs, and huge, popular, and influencial conferences every year (full disclosure: my personal blog is a member of the BlogHer ad network, and I love it).

So, 1) this conference in Chicago is women-centered. 2) It has a LOT of attendees, quite a few of them very influential in the blog world (and beyond…!). And 3) As at any big conference, there are a lot of companies who want to schmooze you.

Now, the BlogHer conference is about as baby-friendly as a conference on this Earth could be. Female bloggers often have children, ya know? And so, you are not going to beLIEVE(!) what Nikon did!

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HARO (an acronym for Help A Reporter Out) is a site that publishes by email (and Twitter when “urgent”) requests from reporters for expert advice. You receive one to two emails a day with a dozen or so requests; typically, at least one or two of the requests are for “green” experts or products.

A typical request look like this:

A freelancer for Ideal Bite/Mama Bite posts:

“I am working on a few different pieces for “beach week” and am looking for kids sandals, bathing suits and hats that are eco-friendly — Made of organic or eco-friendly materials–recycled etc. Please put HARO-Beach-(Your Product) in the subject line.”

Requests also indicate whether you will be treated as an anonymous source and give a deadline.

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Earth Day takes place this April 22nd.

As a green leader or entrepreneur, the day begs the question, what will you be doing?

In a mad public relations world that anchors on events as a tangible “touch point” in lieu of diving into the messier (and harder to track or control) world of ‘awareness’, Earth Day is one of many symbols (i.e. polar bears) we use when speaking to some of the starker and concrete practices of the planet’s ecological anxieties.

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We all know young people have a handle on the Internet like no other demographic. My generation grew up playing computer games, had PC literacy classes in elementary school, and secretly hijacked the internet for music pirating before we were teens. We have an intuitive sense of the web – its uses, its limitations, and its future.

The nation’s young people are now harnessing that power for climate action, and we’re beating coal’s dirty PR in ways that have industry front groups shaking.

The coal industry’s American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has poured millions of dollars into online advertising to convince Americans that “clean coal” is the solution to global warming, and it’s planning a $20 million online push this year. But type “clean coal” into Google, and up pop progressive climate blogs, spoofs and news articles.

In my own search for “clean coal,” eight out of the top 10 organic results were web sites that completely debunked the idea – only Wikipedia and an AP news article held both “sides” up. Not a single site in the top 10 was a pro-clean-coal industry page. Industry front group have had to buy their way onto Google’s front page, thanks in large part to young bloggers.

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A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat.

Every single word counts when it comes to marketing. How you package your brand with words and images has a strong influence on how people perceive your company.

But before I dive into which words can work for your product or service, always keep in mind that your company’s credibility is the first priority. Otherwise, it will affect how receptive people are to your words and any attempts to ‘pull the wool’, so to speak, over a target market’s eyes can backfire.

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You would have to live under a rock to have missed the massive media campaign coal industry groups have been waging over the last year or two. The language and symbols of clean coal now fill the airways on radio and TV; they appear on billboards, in talking points and even on websites like this one. The coal lobby has spent hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone trying to convince politicians and the people who elect them that coal is now or will soon be “clean.”

Big coal’s presence throughout this long election season as a major sponsor of the presidential debates from November 2007 to October 2008 stands in striking opposition to the absence of any substantive political discussions about climate change in the debates themselves.

But not everyone is buying it. As Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog points out, the Sierra Club just launched a PR push of their own, arguing that coal is not the answer. Here’s a little slice of the 116 year-old organization’s new debunking strategy.

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The May request asked caterers to make “every effort” to accomplish healthy goals and called for:

• Three-colored meals selected from the following palette: red, green, yellow, purple and white.
• No fried foods.Half of the plate should belong to fruits and vegetables.
• The use of 70 percent organic or Colorado-grown ingredients.

Now, the Host Committee has issued a clarification called “Friction Fuels Frivolous Food Fight” to allay criticism and stop the spread of “misinformation.”

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Seminars that go by blockbuster titles - as least for green entrepreneurs - such as “How to manage carbon risk” have authentic learning value.

In our over-wired world, live events are a luxury, an hour or three to feel how much we really love context and contact, not just stoic information glaring out at us from a screen when we’re learning complex stuff - like international carbon trading markets.

More to the point, events are becoming an even more attractive “pull” medium than ever. And, the savvy, green entrepreneur should know how to harness the reputation and client lead potentials of a well-orchestrated event - an eco-friendly supplied event, that is.

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Silicon Valley Watcher, Tom Foremski puts it nicely:

Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes…

Press releases are created by committees, edited by lawyers, and then sent out at great expense through Businesswire or PRnewswire to reach the digital and physical trash bins of tens of thousands of journalists.

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P.R. professionals bemoan this situation.

The point is actually how difficult it has been doing PR, specifically media relations, within the green space. As I told PR Week I’ve never dealt with an industry this tough and this cut throat. Everyone is trying to talk green and it makes it very challenging.

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